5 most dangerous countries in the world

Institute for Economics and Peace releases its Global Peace Index report every year. This report is the only one of its kind that measures how dangerous or safe a nation is based on 23 different indicators, including political terror, deaths from internal conflict, and murder rate.

The GPI report evaluates 163 countries with account for over 99% of the world’s total population. The factors analyzed in the report are grouped into three different areas:

Safety and Security

Ongoing Conflict

Militarization

Below are the five most dangerous countries in the world. The majority of these countries have a Level 3 or Level 4 travel advisory from the U.S. Department of State.

dangerous or safe a nation is based on 23 different indicators, including political terror, deaths from internal conflict, and murder rate.

1. Afghanistan

Afghanistan is the most dangerous country in the world, according to the 2019 Global Peace Index. According to the UN peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, the country experienced 3,804 civilian deaths in conflict, 927 of who are children. 

Afghanistan experiences deadly attacks from the Taliban across the country and the U.S. is now in its 19th year of war in Afghanistan. Afghanistan has the highest number of deaths from war and terrorism than any other country in the world.

2. Syria

Syria is the second-most dangerous country in the world. Syria only recently was put in second by Afghanistan. The Syrian civil war has plagued the country since March 2011 and has been the second-deadliest war of the 21st century. 

An estimated 470,000 people, including 55,000 children, have been killed in the Syrian conflict. High levels of violence have been persistent throughout Syria including the use of small arms, tanks, chemical weapons, artillery, and aircraft. As of March 2019, 5.7 million people have fled Syria and over 6 million have been displaced internally.

3. Iraq

The third-most dangerous country in the world is Iraq. Iraq continues to have both internal and external conflicts, including likely terrorist attacks. ISIS continues to capture and kill civilians and Iraqi armed forces. Other human rights violations, including violations of freedom of assembly and women’s rights, have persisted. U.S. 

citizens visiting Iraq are at particularly high risk for violence and kidnapping and are a target of Anti-U.S. sectarian militias throughout Iraq.

4. South Sudan

South Sudan is the fourth-most dangerous country in the world. South Sudan has ongoing conflict, civil unrest, and widespread violent crime, including robberies, assaults, carjacking, and kidnappings. Armed conflict exists mostly between the government and opposition groups, with little to no rule of law or order outside the country’s capital of Juba. 

Areas near South Sudan’s borders with Sudan, Kenya, Central African Republic, and so on, are particularly dangerous. Additionally, South Sudan is at high risk for climate disasters.

5. Yemen

The fifth-most dangerous country in the world is Yemen. Yemeni Civil War began in 2015 between two factions: the Abdrabbuuh Mansur Hadi led government and the Houthi armed movement. 

Yemen has the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN, where four years of ongoing conflict has resulted in 4.3 million people leaving their homes and 14 million people at risk of starvation and outbreaks of deadly diseases. About 80% of the Yemen population (24 million people) is in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.